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Shuttle-Centaur was a version of the Centaur upper stage rocket that could be carried aloft inside the Space Shuttle and used to launch satellites into high Earth orbits or probes into deep space. Two variants were produced: Centaur G-Prime, to launch robotic probes to Jupiter; and Centaur G, for use with US Department of Defense Milstar satellites and the Magellan Venus probe. Its power allowed for heavier deep space probes, prolonging the operational life of the spacecraft. The US Air Force agreed to pay half the cost of Centaur G. The Space Shuttles Challenger and Atlantis were modified to carry the Centaur. After the Challenger accident, NASA concluded it was too risky to fly the Centaur on the Shuttle, just months before its first scheduled flight. The Galileo and Ulysses probes were ultimately launched using the less powerful Inertial Upper Stage. A variant of the Centaur G-Prime was mated with the Titan rocket to produce the Titan IV, which placed 16 military satellites in orbit. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Julie Wera

... that reports of Julie Wera's (pictured) death were greatly exaggerated?
... that Kanye West recorded a music video for "RoboCop" that casts his ex-girlfriend Amber Rose as a robot?
... that American physician and marathon runner Joan Ullyot was one of the key figures in successfully lobbying for a women’s marathon in the Olympic Games?
... that in addition to running Bangkok's first power station, the Siam Electricity Company also operated half the city's tram lines and a fire brigade?
... that Yasin Zia, while Chief of General Staff of Afghanistan, personally led government forces against the Taliban on the edge of Mihtarlam, 120 km (75 mi) from Kabul?
... that Kulgoa was the largest wooden ferry to serve on Sydney Harbour?
... that Louise Heims Beck co-founded the American Theatre Wing and was responsible for overseeing the organization of the 1st Tony Awards?
... that the Punch Bowl Inn in Lancashire was reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a highwayman?

In the news

Taliban fighters in Kabul

Hakainde Hichilema is elected President of Zambia.
The Afghan government collapses as the capital city of Kabul falls to the Taliban offensive (fighters pictured).
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills more than 2,100 people.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report on the state of knowledge of climate change and its effects.

On this day

August 20

Pluto

1710 – War of the Spanish Succession: A Spanish Bourbon army commanded by the Marquis de Bay was soundly defeated by a multinational army led by the Austrian commander Guido Starhemberg.
1794 – American troops defeated the Northwestern Confederacy, a Native American alliance, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the decisive battle of the Northwest Indian War.
1909 – Pluto (pictured) was photographed for the first time at the Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S., 21 years before it was officially discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.
1971 – The Stanford prison experiment, one of the most infamous psychological studies, was ended after six days, when the simulation became too abusive.
1989 – After colliding with a dredger on the River Thames in London, the pleasure steamer Marchioness sank in just thirty seconds, killing 51 people.

Jeremi Wiśniowiecki (d. 1651)
H. P. Lovecraft (b. 1890)
B. K. S. Iyengar (d. 2014)

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The Schauspielhaus Berlin, where Der Freischütz premiered in 1821

The German composer Carl Maria von Weber is best known for his operas, of which he wrote 10 between 1798 and 1826. His first four exist in various states: Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins (composed 1798) is completely lost; two fragments survive for Das Waldmädchen (1800); the libretto to Peter Schmoll und seine Nachbarn (1803) is lost; and only three numbers from Rübezahl (composed 1804–05) survive. Weber's mature operas—Silvana (1810), Abu Hassan (1811), Der Freischütz (1821), Die drei Pintos (composed 1820–21), Euryanthe (1823), Oberon (1826)—all survive intact; they were all performed within his lifetime, except Die drei Pintos which was posthumously completed by Gustav Mahler. After his family moved to Munich in 1798, the 13-year-old Weber began study with Johann Nepomuk Kalcher, under whose supervision he wrote his first opera, the Singspiel Die Macht der Liebe und des Weins; the work was never performed. Weber's first operatic success came with Silvana, on a libretto by Franz Carl Hiemer that was reworked from Steinsberg's earlier one to Das Waldmädchen. (Full list...)

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Christina Nilsson (1843–1921) was a Swedish operatic soprano. After four years' study in Paris, she made her operatic debut in 1864 in the title role of Verdi's La traviata at the Théâtre Lyrique. After this success, she sang at major opera houses in London, New York City, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Brussels and Munich.

Photograph credit: Nadar; restored by Jebulon

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